In various control systems, automation is implemented to increase efficiency and safety. With increased automation, it becomes increasingly relevant to view the automation as a team member, rather than as a tool. In best cases, human-automation teamwork keeps workload within acceptable limits, increase situation awareness, and keeps the operator in the control loop. However, human-automation teamwork will only flourish if the automation is developed with the human operator in mind. Therefore, investigations of the current experiences and expectations regarding automation and teamwork are important for the development of automation. Through a questionnaire among Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs), the present study aims to investigate how ATCOs perceive automation and safety in current and future air traffic control systems and the importance of different teamwork factors for human-human and human-automation collaboration. The results indicate that the ATCOs believe that safety will increase in the future along with increasing automation as long as the automation is working as expected. The ATCOs expressed a fear of deskilling and losing situation awareness with automation, a fear associated with a new ATCO role of monitoring the system and take over when the automation fails. The results suggest that design for human-automation teamwork aspects that ATCOs value, such as adaptability or mutual performance monitoring, could be a way forward.

In air traffic control (ATC), teamwork is a key component among air traffic control operators (ATCOs) to safely direct theaircraft through the sky and on the ground. To be able to design for future ATC systems, we must understand how ATCOswork together, their teamwork, and how they experience and perceive teamwork, in different ATC environments. We conductedinterviews with 16 ATCOs working in four different ATC environments (en-route control, terminal area control, towercontrol for a small airport and tower control for a large airport in Sweden) and analysed the results in the light of the “BigFive” model of teamwork. The main contributions of this paper are to show: (1) how eight teamwork factors are differentlymanifested by the ATCOs in the different ATC environments, (2) that teamwork in ATC is important during routine operations,during stressful work, and during abnormal situations, and (3) that the design of the organisation, the environment,and the tools, affects teamwork and the importance of different teamwork factors.

This dissertation explores the topic of human-automation teamwork in Air Traffic Control (ATC). ATC is a high stakes environment where complex automation is being introduced while the human operator has the legal responsibility. With increasing demands on productivity in various industries (as also in ATC), automation is introduced for efficiency, maintaining safety, and to keep the workload of the human operator within acceptable limits. However, previous research has shown that automation may cause negative effects on the human operator and performance, such as forcing the operator out of the control loop, which might lead to problems or confusion. Previous research suggests a need for strengthening human-automation collaboration where automation is seen as a team member to keep the operator in the loop. In order to achieve such teamwork, the design of the automation needs to be human-centred, i.e. that the automation is designed for the underlying need of the operator.

The aim of this dissertation is to explore teamwork in ATC from several angles to understand how the air traffic controllers are working in current ATC environments and how automation could be designed to support human-automation teamwork. The included studies rely on interviews, simulations, and questionnaires, all with operational air traffic controllers as participants.

The results indicate that for both human-human teamwork and human-automation teamwork, teamwork factors such as adaptability and mutual performance monitoring (knowing what the other team members are doing) are important for the work performance in current ATC environments, where mutual performance monitoring is especially important during stressful situations.

When designing automation, lessons learned from human-human teamwork should be considered. The work within the scope of this dissertation identifies and concerns two human-automation teamwork aspects: boundary awareness and implicit communication. These are proposed to support the operator’s knowledge about the automation and the communication flow between the operator and the automation. Boundary awareness is the operator’s knowledge of the automation’s abilities, its boundaries (what it can or cannot manage), and about consequences if it would go outside of these boundaries. Implicit communication is the unspoken or implied small cues that the operator and the automation can use to communicate with each other. It is proposed that implicit communication can be based on the work patterns of the operator. The knowledge gained through the work in this dissertation can be used as a foundation for further research and design of automation regarding operator knowledge about the automation boundaries and the communication within the team.

Denna avhandling utforskar teamwork mellan människa och automation inom flygtrafikledning. Flygtrafikledning är en högriskmiljö där komplex automation introduceras samtidigt som den mänskliga operatören har det juridiska ansvaret. Med ökade krav på produktivitet inom olika industrier (och även inom flygtrafikledning) så introduceras automation för effektiviteten, för att bibehålla säkerheten och för att hålla arbetsbelastningen för den mänskliga operatören inom acceptabla gränser. Tidigare forskning har däremot visat att automationen kan orsaka negativa effekter på den mänskliga operatören och på prestationen, som till exempel att tvinga ut operatören utanför kontrolloopen vilket leder till problem och förvirring. Tidigare forskning föreslår ett starkare samarbete mellan människa och automation där automationen är sedd som en teammedlem för att behålla operatören i loopen. För att uppnå ett sådant samarbete behöver automation vara människo-centrerad, att automation med andra ord är designad för operatörens underliggande behov.

Syftet med denna avhandling är att utforska teamwork från olika vinklar inom flygtrafikledning för att förstå hur flygledare jobbar i nuvarande flygtrafikledningsmiljöer och för att förstå hur automation skulle kunna designas för att stödja teamwork mellan människa och automation. Studierna som denna avhandling bygger på har använt sig av intervjuer, simuleringar och enkäter, alla med operativa flygtrafikledare som deltagare.

Resultatet tyder på att för både människa-människa teamwork och människa-automations teamwork så är teamwork faktorer så som flexibilitet och ömsesidig övervakning av teammedlemmarnas prestationer viktiga där övervakning av teammedlemmarnas prestationer är speciellt viktigt under stressiga situationer.

När man designar automation bör man ta lärdom från teamwork mellan människor. Vidare så identifierar och behandlar arbetet inom denna avhandling två aspekter gällande teamwork mellan människa och automation: gränsmedvetenhet och implicit kommunikation. Dessa aspekter är föreslagna vi att stötta operatörens kunskap om automationen och kommunikationsflödet mellan operatören och automationen. Gränsmedvetenhet är operatörens kunskap om automationens förmågor, dess gränser och dess konsekvenser när automation går utanför dessa gränser. Implicit kommunikation är de outtalade eller implicita ledtrådar som operatören och automationen kan använda för att kommunicera med varandra. Det är föreslaget att implicit kommunikation kan baseras på arbetsmönster från operatören eller från prediktioner från automationen. Kunskapen från denna avhandling kan användas som ett underlagför vidare forskning och design av automation gällande operatörers kunskap om automationens gränser och kommunikationen inom teamet.

This study aims to first develop a successful taskloadmodel which is able to relate the controller’s interaction with theradar screen to the dynamical changes in air traffic patterns.Secondly, the study aims to examine whether i4D equipage, as aspecific notion of automation, contributes to an improvement inquantification of controller’s taskload model. Thirdly, in a morespecific approach the study intends to analyze to what extentcontrollers may or may not benefit from predictable situations atdense traffic conditions when exposed to higher automatedairspace environment. The model is applied on 18 data setsfeaturing different i4D-equipage levels. It compares controllers’taskload for three different scenarios between an en-route and aterminal sector.